I lay on a hard floor in a small, dark room—small enough that my claustrophobia kicked in immediately and my heart began to race. There was a tiny window near the high ceiling that let in enough light to tell me it was late afternoon. I tried to breathe, in and out, and may have let out a small moan.
Apart from my headache and wrist, the next pain I felt was sheer, unadulterated hunger.
“Finally. Thought you were never going to wake up.”
I blinked several times until I finally shifted my gaze in the direction of the voice—also the source of my current hunger.
Jordan was crouched next to me.
“Get back,” I croaked out.
She shifted backward to give me some space. It helped a little.
“Where are we?” I managed. “What are you doing here?”
Her expression was pinched as she looked around. “Where we are? No idea. Some room with a locked door. What am I doing here? I’m guessing it’s the same reason as you. You didn’t come here of your own free will.” A bit of her bravado slipped away and I could see the fear in her green eyes. “I thought you were dead.”
I rubbed my head with my good hand. “And you’re disappointed that I’m not?”
“Don’t be stupid. Of course not. I don’t like you, Samantha, but I didn’t want you to die. There’s been enough death this week.” Her voice quavered. “What the hell is going on?”
The room was no more than ten square feet. I hated being in enclosed spaces so much. It made me feel trapped. Now I was literally trapped. “How long was I out?”
“A day and a half.”
I forced myself to sit up. “A day and a half?”
“It was yesterday morning when I was brought here. You were brought in an hour later. And then...all afternoon. Night. Day again...it feels like forever. He threw in a water bottle and a couple energy bars. I saved one for you.”
I sat up completely. My head throbbed with the effort and I brought my knees up in front of me, hugging them to my chest as I tried to sort things through. I pressed my right hand against my chest. My wrist was definitely broken.
Panic and anger swirled inside me at the thought that Stephen had kept me unconscious for a day and a half.
Locked in a basement with Jordan.
I looked at her. “We need to get out of here.”
“Gee, what a fantastic idea. I hadn’t considered that before.” Her sarcasm dripped. “The door’s locked. And it’s made of metal. There’s no way out. I already broke three nails trying.”
“What about that window?” I looked up at it.
“Do you have a secret identity as Spider-Man I’m not aware of? Besides, you’re small, but that window is still way too tiny to squeeze through.”
I struggled to get to my feet. Jordan tried to help me but I flinched away from her.
“What is wrong with you?” she snapped.
My stomach clenched as I tried to get control of myself. It took a second. “Trust me, you don’t want to get too close to me right now.”
“You are so weird.”
“Yeah, I’m weird. But take my word for it, okay? Stay back.” I got to my feet on my own and turned in a circle. It looked like a storage room, cleared of any storage so the room was completely empty. Just white walls. Ceiling-set lights. That small window. Two trapped girls. “Do you have a cell phone?”
“Oh, my God!” she exclaimed. “My cell phone! I could just call someone for help.” She glared. “He took it away from me, of course. First thing he did.”
I scowled at her. “You’re not helping.”
“Why is Stephen doing this?” Her earlier smart-ass tone had been replaced by raw pain and confusion. “Why would he do this to me?”
“Maybe you should have left him alone.”
“Nice. And let you have him?”
A cold line of perspiration slid down my back. Being in this tight spot with no idea how to escape was starting to freak me out. “Believe me, I don’t want him. There’s only one thing I want from Stephen and it’s definitely not his body.”
Jordan’s bottom lip wobbled. “He’s a monster.”
“Did he kiss you?” I asked with alarm when the thought occurred to me. At her look of confusion, it took all I had in me not to reach forward and shake her. “Did he?”
Her eyes sparked with fury. “No. He was too busy knocking me unconscious to do any making out. Not that I’d ever kiss him again after what he’s done to me. Bastard.”
“Good.”
“Oh, I see. You’re the only girl that psycho can kiss now. Is that it?”
“Save your jealousy, Jordan. It’s not helpful right now.” I went to the door, pressing my left hand flat against its smooth, cool surface. There was no handle or lock on this side, only flat metal.
Then I started to pound on it. “Stephen! Let us out of here!”
Jordan grabbed my shoulder. “What are you doing?”
I literally shoved her away from me. Her soul was like a tempting second skin she wore, and the last damn thing I wanted to do right now was lose what little control I had left and attack her. “What did I tell you about not getting close to me?”
She frowned deeply. “Stephen said the same thing to me when he brought me in here.”
“He did?”
“Yeah. I figured he just doesn’t like me anymore.”
“I think he might like you too much,” I mumbled. Then I pounded on the door again until my left fist hurt. It was a very sharp reminder that my nexus abilities did not extend themselves to super strength, at least, not when a demon or an angel wasn’t involved. No, a big metal door was more than enough to keep me trapped. And my only ability as a gray was my current and growing need to devour Jordan’s soul.
It was my worst fear come to life. No way to escape my hunger. What happened with Colin would only be foreshadowing if I didn’t find a way out of this room.
“Stephen’s one of them,” Jordan whispered.
She wrung her hands anxiously. “The ones who hurt people, who can absorb their energy somehow. It weakens them—can kill them. The murders in the paper, the ones where the victims have no sign of trauma, only those strange lines around their mouths. The police don’t know why, but I do. I saw it before, and Stephen’s one of them. He’s got us in here and he’s going to kill us.”
I looked at her, stunned that she figured it out—even if she had no idea what she’d figured out. “I don’t think his plan is nearly as simple as killing us.”
“You’re not looking at me like I’m crazy. Why aren’t you freaking out?”
My heart was going a thousand beats a minute, but I was doing everything I could not to let it show on the surface. “I am freaking out, believe me.”
“I checked out the modeling agency. But—but that woman...”
“She wasn’t the reason why Julie killed herself,” I finished. “I know. I checked her out, too.”
She looked shocked. “You did?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“I was trying to make sure you didn’t get yourself killed.”
The mix of surprise and gratitude in her eyes both froze off quickly. “That wasn’t smart. Since now we’re going to die, anyway.”
“Yeah, well, you’re welcome. And we’re not going to die. Stephen, he...he has another reason for keeping us here. And I think we’re going to find out what it is very soon.” There was the sound of a lock turning and the
door began to creak open. My mouth went dry with fear. “Like...right now.”
I staggered back from the door and, for the first time since I came to, felt for the knife at my thigh. Only the leather sheath remained.
“Asshole,” I muttered. He’d broken my wrist when I pulled out the dagger to defend myself. Of course he hadn’t given it back.
Stephen entered the room and closed the door behind him.
He studied us each in turn before casually leaning against the wall. “So we meet again.”
I eyed the door, knowing it was my only escape. The key must be in his pocket. “Planning to knock me out again?” I asked icily.
“Not right now. Maybe later.”
“You need to let us out of here,” Jordan said, her voice breaking.
I watched for his reaction to her, and was surprised to see there wasn’t one. His face remained cold and impassive.
“You’re not going anywhere. Not yet.”
“Start talking,” I snarled. “What do you want?”
“What makes you think I want something?”
“Basic deduction. You dragged both of us here and locked us up. You haven’t hurt Jordan.”
He shrugged. “I knocked her out. Didn’t get to the chloroform in time. Had to slam her head against a cement wall. I’m sure that hurt.”
I glanced at Jordan to see her flinch at the reminder. I finally noticed that there was dried blood along her right temple. I narrowed my eyes at Stephen. “What is wrong with you? Why would you do that?”
He held my gaze steadily. “Sometimes you have to make tough decisions.”
I grabbed his shirt with my left hand, furious now. “Let us out of here.”
He eyed my grip on him before he smirked. “Nah.”
Then he took hold of my shirt, balling the material in his grip, and shoved me backward with inhuman strength. Jordan’s scream pierced through the small room as I went flying backward and hit the wall. I fell flat onto the ground and lay there dazed and gasping for breath.
Grays didn’t have strength like this. The super-gray who’d broken Cassandra’s back had. The realization made my blood run cold.
“You’ve gone through stasis.” I forced out the words as I tried to sit up.
“My evolution was quicker than I thought it would be.” Stephen towered above me, his cinnamon-brown eyes glinting. When I tried to get up, he pinned my shoulder to the ground with the heavy sole of his shoe. “Don’t make me hurt you more than I have to. Stay down.”
I didn’t take direction very well. I struggled, but the pressure only increased as he shifted his weight to my collarbone.
“No angels here to heal you. I suggest you don’t move unless you want me to break some more bones, Samantha. For what I need from you...you don’t have to be in one piece.”
I stopped struggling. He leaned over and yanked me up, slamming me into the wall hard enough to knock my breath out of me.
“Let go of her!” Jordan shrieked. She was fighting him now, clawing at his arm. But, while she was tall, she wasn’t any stronger than a typical seventeen-year-old girl. Not compared to something like Stephen.
He shoved her away from him. She stumbled and fell to the ground.
Stephen glared at her. “Stay down.”
He had me raised off the ground, my feet dangling. While he hadn’t broken any bones this time, I’d definitely sprained my shoulder. The pain only fueled my anger and helped my claustrophobia take a backseat.
“Does it make you feel like a man to beat up two girls like this?” I asked. “You’re a pathetic lowlife. You always have been.”
His hateful smirk returned, making his handsome face very ugly. “Wrong. I’m an example of the highlife, the best yet. Do you know what it feels like after going through stasis? I thought losing my soul was a good thing in the beginning. It gave me confidence all of a sudden. It made girls look at me more than they already did—and every one of them wanted me. That extra something we have, it’s to draw our victims closer. Gives us a chance to feed. And they like it, even when you’re draining every last bit. You know that, right?”
I didn’t say anything. He didn’t need the confirmation.
“It tastes better now, taking a soul,” he said. “And we take the whole soul, every time.”
Repulsion shot through me. “Now when you kiss them, you can’t change them into another gray. You kill them.”
He laughed. “Stupid humans, milling about this city. They think they’re the top of the food chain. But they’re not. Why can’t you get it through your head, Samantha? You’re one of us. You’re part of the new order.”
“Oh, my God. The new order? What is this, some sort of gray power thing? You’re sick.”
“You’ll feel differently after you’ve evolved to the next level.” He raised an eyebrow at my blanched look. “You know it’s inevitable, don’t you? You must feel it drawing closer by the hour.”
His words made me ill. I kept quiet, hoping that my glare would suddenly turn into something capable of killing him where he stood.
“Stasis is like a wave in the distance, taking its time to arrive,” he continued, “but when it gets closer you realize it’s more like a tsunami. Natalie thought the less we fed, the more it stayed at bay. But it’s just the opposite. The more you feed, especially closer to stasis, the more you delay it, but it’s not forever. When it gets here you’ll lose yourself completely. There’s no other choice.”
His words sent a fresh ripple of jagged fear through me. “You lost yourself?”
Stephen nodded. “Monday night. At Ambrosia. I lost it. I had to get out of there. Funny thing was, I left so I wouldn’t hurt anyone. Once you lose it, you don’t care about meaningless things like that. All you think about is feeding. And your victims? They’re still drawn to you, even in that mindless state. Easy pickings. I fed a lot that night. And I woke up the next morning better than ever.”
“What are you talking about?” Jordan demanded. “I don’t understand any of this. What the hell are you?”
“I’m the future. Your future.” He looked at her. “You called me a monster before, but I’m way better than that.”
She gaped at him. “You can take someone’s soul by—by kissing them?”
“That’s right.”
Her shocked expression soured. “That sounds really lame.”
He gave her a cold smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “You’ll change your mind.”
Stephen was still in love with Jordan. Don’t ask me how or why, but he was. I’d seen it at the mall. That was my confirmation. Even though he’d gone through stasis, there was still something there when it came to his feelings toward the redhead.
She had a soul. She was close to him right now, trapped and vulnerable. And yet, he didn’t make a move to feed on her because it would kill her if he did.
That meant something very important to me.
“Stop this, Stephen.” He still held me effortlessly against the wall as if I weighed no more than a teacup Chihuahua. With his increased strength, he could break my spine with the smallest twist. And he could do the same—or worse—to Jordan.
His eyes narrowed. “I don’t want to stop. This is it, Samantha. This is what I’ve been waiting for all my life. My reason to exist.”
“And what reason is that? You’re stuck in this city like all the others. You’re trapped as much as I am in this room.”
He cocked his head. “Natalie said that you have the power to c
ut a hole in the barrier with your boyfriend’s dagger.”
My stomach clenched. I’d hoped he’d forgotten about that little hypothesis, my aunt’s quest to escape from Trinity so she could spread her evil far and wide. “She was fooling herself. I can’t do that.”
Stephen glanced at Jordan again, who hadn’t gotten up from the ground yet. “Samantha’s the daughter of a demon and an angel. That gives her special powers that I need.”
“Shut up.” Any mention of what I was put me into immediate panic mode as if the words themselves had power.
He grinned. “It’s a secret, though, so shh. Don’t tell anyone.”
Jordan’s eyes widened. “Oh, my God. Are you serious?”
My gaze shot to her. “Don’t listen to him. He’s a liar.”
Her face was so pale her freckles stood out more than they normally did. “Demons and angels...but those things don’t really exist.”
“Wrong,” Stephen said. “They’re prowling the city right now, on a hunt for things like me. Although, I’m pretty hard to kill now. Nearly impossible, really.” He raised an eyebrow. “Haven’t come to rescue you yet, have they, Samantha? Thought they’d taken you as a pet.”
Bishop had found me when Kraven was forced to kiss me. But his tracking ability wasn’t reliable anymore.
Did he even know I’d been missing for a day? Had Cassandra noticed the house was empty, or had she thought I’d gone to bed early again last night and left first thing this morning?
I’d told Bishop I wanted nothing to do with them, and with him. And he’d agreed to give me my space. To say I regretted our last conversation would be a monumental understatement.
I did need him. And I wished desperately he was here.
Mostly so he could kick Stephen’s ass and introduce him to that handy golden dagger of his.
My empathy toward Stephen Keyes was at an end.
“What do you want with us?” I demanded, trying my best to remain calm when I felt anything but. “Or did you just want to talk to us all day?”
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